The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Seducing the Boys Club, by Nina DiSesa
Book 42
I put down the Mailer book, good as it is, when I saw Seducing the Boys Club, by Nina DiSesa at the Library Used Book Store. I opened it to a random page in the middle, thinking it would be lame chick lit. But it was insightful. Damn.DiSesa is a leader in the advertising industry, which I understand to be the worst of the cut-throat old boys’ clubs. So there are some awesome and shocking stories of inappropriate behavior in the workplace. The foul language alone made me cringe. I am happy to say that there were few anecdotes that really hit home for me.
There is, however, some good advice to be had. The theme is that women should stop trying to be men and use their strengths. “Reading the room” is a great example. DiSesa tells a story about asking a team how a client meeting went. The men all thought it was fine. The women in the room knew that it wasn’t fine. The client was unhappy and extremely close to dropping them. The men had been listening to what the client was saying. The women were reading the body language. The women were right and they saved the business.
She defends the concepts of “seduction” and “manipulation”, saying that these are not bad words. They describe how to get people to do what you want them to do, which we all do every day. There are plenty of variations of the advice: “make them think it was their own idea”.
DiSesa has a line that she says we are to tattoo to our wrists:
“Men like women who like them”.
It is so simple and so true. [Note: My mother wants you all to know that people like people who like them. The insight should not be limited to gender roles.] And I am not good at pretending that I like people, so I really should get this tattoo.
There aren’t many revelations here, but DiSesa set out to write a business book that reads like a novel. She succeeded in that.
Silent Treatment
This is Spooky not speaking to me. I took him to the vet today.
He is coming up on 19 years old, and should be going in every six months just to check. He is generally very healthy, except for some seasonal skin irritation that compels him to lick his limbs until there are bald spots. He also scratched his forehead until it bled.
I recently noticed that he is sneezing. I particularly notice in the middle of the night when he does it in my face. Since we are coming up on his itchy season anyway, I took him in.
He’s fine. He even sneezed while we were there, so the vet saw that it was water as opposed to mucus or blood(?!) and agreed that it was probably seasonal nothingness. But she reminded me that cat allergies generally show up in the skin and not the respiratory system, so I am not to screw around if it gets worse.
Actually, I think what I am paying for is for the vet to listen to me freaking out over all of the weird differences between dogs and cats. Like the arthritis. Clearly, the dog has it. We can tell because he is stiff and slow to get moving after a nap. Spooky isn’t as active as he used to be, but that doesn’t mean he is in pain. He used get his exercise by terrorizing the dog. He doesn’t do that anymore, but maybe that is because the arthritic dog doesn’t engage.
“Yeah. You should get a puppy.” (Hear that, Mom? The Vet said Spooky needs a puppy!)
Anyway, since Spooky saunters everywhere, how would I even know if he is uncomfortable?
“He’ll stop jumping up onto things.”
Apparently it is just harder to tell with cats. He’s still jumping onto things. I told her that not long ago, in the middle of the night he tried to jump from the floor to my pillow. Where my head was. At 2:24 a.m. He missed, and landed in the garbage. Then she said at his age, a glucosamine supplement was probably a good idea.
So we get home. I gently put Spooky down on the floor. The dog started following him around, sniffing. (“Wherewereyouwherewereyouwhydidn’tIgettogo?”) I came thisclose to letting him get his ass kicked by an angry cat.
Maybe that’s why Spooky isn’t speaking to me.
Gamecast
Once a year, the Bears seem to have a Thursday night game. Thursday night, when I am at the library.
So I am sitting with my paper, due Sunday. But I have Internet, so I go to the gamecast at ESPN.com. You get a little picture of a football field. Wait, here is how they advertise it:
Then I remembered that the game is on the NFL network. So I Google it and find a webcast. Four guys in the studio. Oh – there’s the game. I grab my headphones and wonder how I am going to keep from screaming at the game in the library. I needn’t have worried. They show 30 seconds of the game and then go back to the studio. And then talk to the guy on the sidelines. And go back to the studio to recap the first drive. What? “NFL.com LIVE” is mostly watching the cast in the studio talking about the two teams that are playing while they are playing. Instead of watching the actual game.
I left both windows open. And they were rarely in the same place at the same time. The good news there is that ESPN told me that Robbie Gould made that 50-yard field goal so I actually watched it.
I expected better of the NFL Network.
Arlington
Thank you for your attention.
A Day with Alex and Ainslie
POTUS and a Lightsaber
John Scalzi writes many funny things and many true things. The other day, he wrote something that I just loved about the Sci Fi geeks that whine about when their obsession is going to go mainstream. I am not a real Sci Fi geek. I am a poser. But personally, I think those people are morons. I hate when the things I think are cool go mainstream.
Quick example, and excuse me while I date myself:
Remember Wayne’s World? There was a scene when Wayne, Garth and their friends are singing Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody in the car. Mock serious, like total dorks. My brother and I did that with our friends. All. The. Time. When we first saw the scene, we about died from the cool. And then everyone was doing it and it was all over. I had to find a new favorite Freddie Mercury song.
Anyway. Scalzi. This is what he said:
“When the goddamned President of the United States makes Vulcan salutes and is photographed quite unselfconsciously whipping a lightsaber about on the White House lawn, you have won.”
With this pic:
The President has never looked so hot. But that stance…a bit too much of the Hamlet and Laertes and not quite enough of the Obi Wan Kenobi. If you ask me.
Something about a Parrot and a Stuffed Bunny
I have nothing interesting to say right now except:
Real rate = rr = [(1+rNOM)/(1+Inflation)] – 1.0
So you will have to settle for a birdie video that someone posted on the Parrot Lovers page on LJ:
I will not be teaching Kiwi the Grey to say “Peek a Boo”.
More about the Résumé
I am thinking that Career Builder is actually a decent resource for information, as well as searching the job posts. Through MSN, they had a “Test Your Résumé Readiness Quiz” that hits the nail on the head as far as I am concerned.
Tip of the day: I write the word “résumé” a lot. You’d think I have a macro, but I’m too lazy. Most of us HR types will forgive seeing “resume” instead of “résumé”, particularly in an e-mail, but it looks somewhat less polished. I can’t quite live with writing it that way myself. Here’s my trick (in MS Word):
Type “resuma”. It will give you a red underline for a misspelled word. Then right-click to correct and you will find résumé on the list of choices.
Now take that quiz!
V: The New Scary Series
The Payton Tribute
CBS, in its ultimate suckage, required the city of Chicago to watch its halftime game recap rather than the tribute to Walter Payton that was being held on the field. I want it noted for the record that I called it – my mother said that she wouldn’t watch it because the very idea made her tearful. I told her not to worry because CBS would just send us to the studio at halftime like every other Sunday. She did not believe me.
Anyway, for those that care, the Tribune had a link to the Bears Tribute page with several videos including, I presume, the one played at halftime. Here is the one least likely to make my mother cry. Because Dan Hampton is not in it.
The Next Dark Age 